Betrayal...

[fajrdrako]

They talk of a man betraying his country, his friends, his sweetheart. There must be a moral bond first. All a man can betray is his conscience. - Joseph Conrad

Comments

[wanderinunicorn.livejournal.com]

Joseph Conrad - I've read only his "Heart of Darkness" - it's a good book. Do you know Conrad's boigraphy? Which novel is the quote from? It's very true.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It's from "Under Western Eyes". No, I didn't already know that, I had to Google for it - it's been quoted a lot, but mostly just attributed to Conrad without mention of the specific source.

I'd like to read a biography of Conrad. I've read odds and ends about him, but nothing more than you'd see in Wikipedia or a good encyclopedia.

[wanderinunicorn.livejournal.com]

Therer is something very strange about him; he was a Polish nobleman, then capitain on a ship and then an english writer. I've read a biography of him but a small one, there is another one with the title "Three Lifes of Joseph Conrad" but I couldn't find it.
Really strage is to me his abandon of his native language as a writer. I've read in his biography that he learnt English first as he was 20 and he never spoke fluently but with a strong foreign accent. But his novels are written in good english (so I've read, I can't judge). I've also read that he was only one writer in the world who wrote his books in a foreign language (Keruac and Nabokov were bilinguale). It's so interesting to me, because I studied languages (German and Russian) and although I can speak and write German quite good (I like this language -sic!), I wouldn't never try to write a literary work in it, because it's not my native language and I know only too good how difficult could be to express oneself in a foreign language.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, the whole thing about Conrad writing in a language he didn't learn until adulthood is amazing, especially when he did it so well. I'm a language-dabbler not a linguist but it's beyond my comprehension - and incites my sense of awe. It all goes to show that spoken language and written language are quite different talents, and minds are amazing things.

[firko.livejournal.com]

Good quote - the only thing you can betray is yourself.

I'm in the never-read-any-of-his-work club too.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Sadly, in my opinion, Joseph Conrad is one of those brilliant writers like Herman Melville who works better in quotations than he does in full novels. Though perhaps I should give Conrad another try. I remember him as having wonderful moments but boring hours. Very insightful, but sometimes taking too long to get to his points.

Or maybe I was just young and impatient.

[firko.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit like that with Dickens. I should love him (he's been in Doctor Who after all!), but everytime I start one of his books I give up. Too much description, too many characters - for me, he works better in adaptation than on the page. But no doubt I will relent and give him another go!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I can understand this response to Dickens, because it's a common one, but I love Dickens with a passion. One of my all-time favourite writers. For me, he has amazing emotional resonance, and just sucks me right into his stories. My favourite of his books is Our Mutual Friend, with the sarky and wonderful Eugene Wrayburn and a delightful murder plot in which the supposed victim is the protagonist. I love so many of his books - okay, I was a little bored by "Martin Chuzzlewit" and Flora Dombey in Dombey and Son was most irritating, but I've figured recently that this just reflects one of my own psychological hangups and isn't really little Flora's fault.... Hmm, you probably don't want to hear me rambling on and on about Charles Dickens, do you? Sorry. Fannish reflexes kick in at the mention of his name.

Sadly I don't much like the episode of Doctor Who that he's in, but that's okay. I like it that they included him. I like it that the Doctor likes him. I just didn't think they did him justice.

I have never read Little Dorrit. I read everything else Dickens ever wrote at least once (barring a few essays and short stories) by the time I was twenty, but I didn't want to go through life with no "new" Dickens novel to read, so I'm saving Little Dorrit for my extreme old age. It occurs to me now that I haven't read Hard Times, either. Maybe the time has come.

Other favourite characters: Sam Weller, Mr. Guppy (tho' I didn't like the Burn Gorman take on the character, unfortunately), Sidney Carton, Esther Sommerson, and the raven in Barnaby Rudge.

I'll stop my fannish ranting now... if I can.

[firko.livejournal.com]

Fannish ranting is always good and should never be apologised for!

Your enthusiasm for him convinces me that I will give him another try sometime. I'm more of a Shakespeare girl myself - he's very cool for a guy whose been dead for nearly 400 years!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Fannish ranting ... should never be apologised for!

I do it rather too often, I fear. I don't want to bore my friends. But really... Dickens!

I'm more of a Shakespeare girl myself

Well, yes, I prefer Shakespeare, who needs no defense: the best of the best. And Dorothy Dunnett would come second for me. But Dickens is right up there, in my trinity of favourite writers.